Steel

I am often asked what my favorite cookware is, and I have to answer as my sainted father always instructed me not to – with a question. What do you want to cook? A roasting pan does not contain a decent stock, and, whilst you may sauté in a sauce pot, it is not a good sauté pan. So what do you want to cook?

My every-day, go-to pans are made of French rolled steel. They started life as white steel pans, and they are now black as night. The cure is deep and heavy, and soap never touches them lest that cure be destroyed. They occupy a place of honor on the pot rack, and to my jealous eye, they are as beautiful as polished copper.

These pans are the French versions of cast iron, and they serve much of the same role served by cast iron in American cuisine. Steel, like iron, absorbs heat and redistributes it evenly. It can take ferociously high temperatures, either on the stove top or in the oven, and, like iron, it is entirely induction friendly.

Many modern cooks are skeptical about steel, thinking that, while it may be fine for pan-cooking a steak, its use with delicate items such as eggs and fish must be limited. Not so. Steel pans develop a cure that renders them virtually non-stick. It is true that a knob of butter is necessary before executing a perfect omelet, but with a little practice, these can be used for the most refined of preparations.

These are my favorite sauté pans. They are well made with robust steel welds. They are indelicate in feel and appearance – there are no silicon handle protectors here, just broad steel handles that get hot as the hinges of Hades if left over high heat. They hearken back to the days of Marie-Antoine Carême, iron stoves and brick ovens. These are the serious implements of high cuisine.

These used to be cheap, and, when compared to copper, they still are. If you can find them packed in mineral oil and plastic, they will be exceptionally ugly coming out of the box, and they will cost half of what they will through the gourmet store. Either way, however, they are bargains. Once you have two or three of these in your possession, you will feel as though you can take on the world. Of cuisine.

Book Review: The Nero Wolfe Cookbook by Rex Stout

The Nero Wolfe Cookbook by Rex Stout and the editors of Viking Press
Hardcover: 215 pages
Publisher: Amereon Ltd (June 10, 1987)
ISBN-10: 1848800575
Rating (1 to 5*): ***

Nero Wolfe is probably the greatest foodie in all of crime fiction. His collection of adventures will be handled in another post, but suffice to say that the novels that feature the rotund detective are filled with fine meals. The meals range from midnight snacks for late working associates to grand spa feasts for convocations of gourmand icons. The reader is assured of some fine quality and well educated food discussion in every novel and just about every short story too.

The reason for the high quality dining sequences is because Rex Stout, the creator of Nero Wolfe, was an authentic gourmet himself. He loved good food. Every dish described in the Nero Wolfe stories is genuine and authentic. And so The Nero Wolfe Cookbook was born. Though the back of my paperback edition claims, "Real recipes from America's greatest fictional detective," in the introduction Rex Stout says that he is responsible for none of the book's content with the exception of the excerpts from the stories that are included before most of the recipes. The full byline on the cover says, "Rex Stout and the editors of Viking Press," and Stout gives the credit for the recipes to Barbara Burn. In fact, most of the recipes included are very classical French and French style recipes. In the novels, the bulk of the cooking is credited to Fritz Brenner, Wolfe's French-Swiss chef, so the recipes are deeply rooted in the European tradition.

The recipes in this little work are not particularly original, and most of them may be found elsewhere. A modicum of cooking technique is a valuable skill in attempting the more difficult of these, but none of them are beyond the skill of a decent home cook. The Nero Wolfe Cookbook was first published in 1973, and it spans an era of Nero Wolfe mysteries that begin in 1934 and were still being written when this work was published, so many of the recipes are of an older style, and some may find that they appeal to older tastes. There is a good deal of cream and butter in here, and rich sauces and ingredients abound.

There are a couple of editions of The Nero Wolfe Cookbook currently available, though I suspect that the Cumberland House trade paperback that I have is out of print. It is an exceptionally nice edition because it is rich with black and white photographs of New York throughout the Nero Wolfe era, including architecture and restaurants from the 1930s. That adds a good deal of personality to this edition, and it draws readers into the world of Nero and Archie. The edition that is currently available is a great looking period style hardback that I rather covet, but it does not have the great photographs.

From The Nero Wolfe Cookbook [Cumberland House, trade paperback edition], p. 189

Roast Duck Mr. Richards

The roast was young duck Mr. Richards, by Marko Vukcic. This was one of Wolfe's favorites, and I was well acquainted with the Fritz Brenner-Nero Wolfe version of it. [Attributed to the fictional character, Archie Goodwin]


1 large duck, 4 ½ to 5 pounds
1 tablespoon minced shallots
2 sprigs parsley
½ teaspoon salt
Few grains cayenne pepper
Freshly ground black pepper
1 cup strong chicken broth
½ teaspoon fresh tarragon (or ¼ teaspoon dried leaves)
1 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley
½ teaspoon fresh thyme (or ¼ teaspoon dried leaves)
¼ cup cognac

Preheat oven to 500°. Remove giblets and liver from the duck, and chop with the shallots and parsley sprigs. Season with a little salt and cayenne, and put back into the duck, which has been well cleaned and rubbed with salt and black pepper. Truss carefully, pricking the skin in several places, and lay on a rack in a roasting pan in the very hot oven for 15 minutes.

Reduce heat to 400°, and continue cooking until the duckling is done, 70 to 80 minutes, and basting occasionally with the chicken broth, which has been seasoned with tarragon, parsley and thyme and from which the herbs have been strained. Also baste with the pan juice. There should be at least ½ cup or more of basting and duck juices in the roasting pan when the duck is done. Arrange the cooked duck on a hot platter, pour a little warmed cognac over it and set fire to it. As the flames die down, pour over it the pan juices, from which you have skimmed the fat. Carve at once. (Serves 4)

Book Review: Le Guide Culinaire by Georges Auguste Escoffier

Review
Escoffier: The Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery [Hardcover] by H.L. Cracknell (Translator), R.J. Kaufmann (Translator)
Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (June 15, 1983)
ISBN-10: 0471290165
Rating (1 to 5*): ****

The bane of every cooking school student, Le Guide Culinaire  is the aptly named textbook for all who aspire to greatness in the kitchen. I have known chefs who say, with a sense of casual aplomb, that they disposed of their copy the day that they graduated cooking school, and others who claim that they have not seen their copy for years, but that does not raise my estimation of them. For this guide to cooking encapsulates all of what we consider "classical French cuisine".
I will grant that we no longer have need for butter laden sauces on everything we eat, and the animal fat content of many of these recipes is not in line with our current lives, and that limits some of its applicability to our era, but the codification of the greatest cuisine in the world more than makes up for this shortfall.

Le Guide was first published in 1903. It went through some updates until the iconic 1921 edition came out. It only took 76 years for the 1921 edition to be translated into English, though outtakes and summaries have been available longer. The edition that is generally embraced by cooking schools is the Cracknell & Kaufman translation, which is a wonderful work in itself. It is a bit cost restrictive, but, when it comes to the apex of the art of fine cuisine, what is money? The binding is fairly heavy, to withstand years of steady use in the kitchen, the print is clear and the margins are suitably wide for rich annotation by the owner.

If you really want to know how to build a Fond Blanc de Veau or a Glace de Viande, this is the indisputable source. You may find simplified methods elsewhere, but if you want the authentic article, Le Guide is where you go.

Le Répertoire de La Cuisine: A Guide to Fine Foods [Hardcover] by Louis Saulnier
Publisher: Barron's Educational Series (December 31, 1977)
ISBN-10: 0812051084
Rating (1 to 5*): ***

One of the extraordinary things about Le Guide Culinaire is the fact that there is a simplification of it available in the form of Le Répertoire de La Cuisine. If Le Guide is aimed at serious cooks who know the craft before attempting the recipes therein, Le Répertoire is aimed at the very experienced cook. This book uses the same numeration of recipes that Le Guide does, and it gives ingredient lists, but no proportions and no methods. It is an all-encompassing memory aide for the cook who really knows how to make the recipes, but who cannot remember the 5012 ingredient lists in the book. I have seen this amazing little book, dog-eared and oil stained, in the tool boxes and knife rolls of cooks at nearly every restaurant where I have worked. This is a truly indispensable tool for the professional, and it is a handy accessory for the experienced home cook as well.

Le Guide Culinaire: Do you need it? Probably not. If you are a devout foodie, you will enjoy reading it and you are bound to learn much from it. No, we do not eat the fantastically ornamental foods of the turn of the 20th century anymore, but for that very special dinner, if you produce some element from Escoffier's repertoire, you will firmly establish yourself as the king or queen of your local food circle.

The dish that follows is not in Le Guide Culinaire, as such. The sauce, however, is. It is recipe number 112, Sauce Currie à l'Indienne – Curry Sauce (Indian Style). Bear in mind, this book was written before the era of readily available international cuisine. Escoffier was adapting traditional Indian curry recipes for the tastes of his primarily British patronage. I am a curry aficionado, and this one, though inauthentic, fills a niche among my favorites. This is a curry for when you want to impress the in-laws. If you have any curry haters in your acquaintanceship, serve them this and they will be well on their way to getting over it. Escoffier recommends that this sauce be served with fish, shellfish, poultry and egg dishes. Because of its strong flavor, I am a huge fan of it served with grilled chicken. Serve with a good quality chutney and pilaf and a cold rosé wine, such as a Sancerre. Summertime eating never had it so good.

Poulet a la Currie à l'Indienne

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 2 chickens
• 1/2 oz. good quality butter (such as Kerrygold or other European style butter)
• 2 1/4 oz. finely sliced onion
• Bouquet garni of parsley stalks, thyme, ½ bayleaf, mace and cinnamon)
• 1/2 tsp. curry powder, or more to taste
• 1 cup, coconut milk
• 1 cup, rich chicken stock
• 1/4 cup, heavy cream
• Fresh lemon juice

Method:

Butcher the chickens into quarters, leg and thigh and boneless breast and wing. Remove the bones from the thighs and remove the end portions of the wings, leaving the drumettes attached to the boneless breasts. Season with salt and pepper and put aside.

Prepare a grill for the chicken.

To make the sauce:

Heat butter in a saucier or sauté pan; add onion and bouquet garni; cook together without color until the onion is translucent and the herbs and spices are fragrant.

Sprinkle with curry powder and moisten with coconut milk and chicken stock. Simmer together, very gently, for 15 minutes. Strain through a fine sieve and finish with cream and a few drops of lemon juice.

Cook the chicken:

Grill the chicken. Cook skin side down over high heat, monitoring carefully. You want strong grill marks and a touch of char, but you do not want it to burn. Turn the chicken to the cooler side of the grill and cover, allowing to cook to an internal temperature of 170°F on the breasts and 175°F on the thighs.

To serve:

On each plate, put down a base of a good pilaf. If it has a sweet element, such as a touch of fruit, that marries excellently with this sauce. Place a breast/wing and a leg/thigh just below the pilaf, crossing the bones over the rice. Ladle 2 ounces of the sauce over the thigh and breast section, allowing it to pool beneath. Finish with a sprinkling of chopped flat leaf parsley, if desired.

Notes: 1) This recipe calls for chicken stock because we are serving it with chicken. It may be made as effectively with fish stock, veal stock or lamb stock to marry it with the dish being served. If serving the sauce with a variety of meats or with eggs, veal stock is the most neutral. 2) Coconut milk may be manufactured by soaking 1 ½ lbs. of grated fresh coconut in a pint of lukewarm milk, then strain through cheesecloth. If coconut is unavailable, this may be done using chopped almonds as well.